Anchor lighting

[poter]

I notice that the colregs are not specific when it comes to anchor lights, as I am hopefully going to be on the hook this season, I was thinking about an all round solar LED light at the back of the boat from the solar panel bridge, on a suitable, say 1 meter pole that I can easily dismount.
Any thoughts? How do you make sure your safe at anchor?

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Anchor light: "A vessel of less than 50 metres in length may exhibit an all-round white light where it can best be seen ..." so that would be OK.

Usual spot is masthead (can be hard to see) or you could arrange a lamp hoisted in the fore triangle. If you have the power available, using the deck lights to illuminate the deck, coachroof and hull is effective.

 

[RupertW]

Apart from avoiding relying on a masthead light - visible for miles but hopeless against any background from less than a couple of hundred metres - I think there are lots of options.

We go for a couple of very bright garden solar lights which do last all night and we can see them from a restaurant half a mile away. It's very naff but so we can identify our boat in the anchorage we also have a string of tiny white solar fairy lights over the back of the Bimini. I don't know how it works as each light must be far too dim to see from half a mile but the lit up arch shape is visible and distinctive from that distance.

The one thing I have no interest in is lights that can be seen from a mile or more away as nothing that far away has ever hit me.

 

[Carmel2]

Top of the mast.



One of theses on the bow and stern.

 

[Yngmar]

We have an anchor light. It's primary purpose is to comply with colregs so that we are covered in case of an incident. Being at the masthead, it's totally useless for avoiding people banging into you in the dark of night.

The actual thing that keeps us safe at night is the deck flood light. It's on all night, uses minimal power since I fitted a LED (car headlight) bulb in it and lights up the whole foredeck and mast, making it very obvious to anyone with half an eye open that we are there, we're a sailboat and how big/far away we are.

We also have a solar powered light that hangs off the stern arch as backup, just in case the other one fails or we forget to switch it on.

 

[multihullsailor6]

In my experience the solar powered "garden" lamps do not last the full night and are of weak luminosity. When I am asleep at anchor I prefer to be seen!

So I have a LED strobe light at the masthead and also hang a LED anchor light in the foresail triangle, this one has a daylight / nightlight automatic switch and is attached to my anchor ball set up which goes up as soon as the anchor has set.

 

[Poignard]

I have a proper anchor lamp that burns oil and, a recent purchase, an led anchor lamp. I hang whichever I am using from the forestay so it is at approximately eye-level for the helmsman of any other yacht coming into the anchorage. The light from the lamp also reflects off the rigging so it is very visible. I can't see anything wrong with that set up.

 

[poter]

Ok chaps, just what I thought. Just be very visable I will also get some red and green battery led for the mast stay,s as well.

 

[dunedin]

We have a masthead anchor light but generally prefer to use an LED light slung under the boom.

We generally prefer the light in the back half of the boat, as most anchoring in the waters we sail is in bays - and you generally anchor off a Windward shore for shelter, not a Lee shore. Hence another boat coming in during the night will generally be coming from astern, or possibly abeam, not from the bow. Hence a light in the foretriangle is in the wrong place.
If you generally anchor in rivers then the foretriangle makes sense. But never done this that I can recall in hundreds of times on the hook.
Of course as well as the officials anchor light, a few extra deck lights / LED garden lights etc doesn’t do any harm in a busy thoroughfare. Ever seen a ship anchored without a lot of lights on?

 

[geem]

I think it depends where you are in the world. Here in the Bahamas there is very little population on land. Almost no lighting ashore at night. A mast head anchor light works perfectly well. It comes on and off automatically so fit and forget.
When we are in more populated spots we supliment it with another Led anchor light in the fore triangle, also automatic on/off. Covers all bases.

 

[RupertW]

In my experience the solar powered "garden" lamps do not last the full night and are of weak luminosity. When I am asleep at anchor I prefer to be seen!

So I have a LED strobe light at the masthead and also hang a LED anchor light in the foresail triangle, this one has a daylight / nightlight automatic switch and is attached to my anchor ball set up which goes up as soon as the anchor has set.

You may be right about your own lights but are wrong about garden lights - ours have always lasted all night and being able to see them half a mile away from a lit quay is good enough for me. Don't like the idea of a strobe in an anchorage though - fast flashing lights seems a bit antisocial

 

[Neeves]

We have an LED cluster in the foretriangle that lights up the whole foredeck and cabin roof, its solar with a little battery bank under the panel, the panel is independently wired (so we could move the panel to catch more sunlight). We have a solar garden light, quite large, on the transom. Both lights operate without sunshine for 3 days, we have not had 4 days without sunshine to test . But in case of an absence of sunshine we also have 2 small led clusters on poles, sort sold for runabouts, that are wired in to the house battery circuit that sit either side of the boom on the targa. We lift the poles off their housing when not in use.

The light in the foretriangle produces sufficient light to allow anyone to work on the foredeck without any additional light. The light on the transom provide sufficient light for night fishing from the cockpit. Both of these lights are auto on. The lights, we might use on the targa, only have one role and we need to switch on, and off.

We tested the idea that a light in the fore triangle damaged vision for spotting yachts dragging down on you - I imagine this might be the case if you are visibly impaired (or drunk too much) - otherwise its another of these marine truths that aren't.

Jonathan

 

[noelex]

In my experience the solar powered "garden" lamps do not last the full night and are of weak luminosity. When I am asleep at anchor I prefer to be seen!

I am also not a fan of garden LED lights on their own. Most would have no hope of meeting the legal 2nm visibility requirement. This brightness requirement is important. You don't need 2nm warning, but the requirement is a sensible way of ensuring the light is bright enough that it can be seen in poor conditions such as heavy rain and/or with a background of shore lights.

However, extra garden lights in addition to a 2nm light are a great idea. Low down lights are easier to see in many situations and if you can illuminate some of the superstructure, depth perception is much easier for an approaching yacht.

It would be great if everyone could make an effort to illuminate their anchored yacht so that it is easily seen. With the low cost and power requirements of LED lights, this is no longer difficult to achieve.

 

[RupertW]

I am also not a fan of garden LED lights on their own. Most would have no hope of meeting the legal 2nm visibility requirement. This brightness requirement is important. You don't need 2nm warning, but the requirement is a sensible way of ensuring the light is bright enough that it can be seen in poor conditions such as heavy rain and/or with a background of shore lights.

However, extra garden lights in addition to a 2nm light are a great idea. Low down lights are easier to see in many situations and if you can illuminate some of the superstructure, depth perception is much easier for an approaching yacht.

It would be great if everyone could make an effort to illuminate their anchored yacht so that it is easily seen. With the low cost and power requirements of LED lights, this is no longer difficult to achieve.

I understand your point but LEDs from garden lights or LEDs from the main battery bank are the same thing powered differently. Brightness is important even if I think 2nm is silly so with the right garden lights you can achieve the same effect all night and I completely agree that low down is the only sensible way to go. We have one at the bows which lights the foredeck and one aft which lights the stern and cockpit (plus our silly arch fairy lights) and I feel much more secure all night than many nearby boats with lights in the sky giving no indication of distance or shape.

 

[noelex]

I understand your point but LEDs from garden lights or LEDs from the main battery bank are the same thing powered differently.

I don't agree that garden solar lights and marine anchor lights are typically the same.

Look at the number/type of LEDs. Legal 2nm anchor lights have typically 10x the number of equivalent emitters.

Or look at the power supply. A typical legal 2nm anchor light consumes about 0.17A @ 12.4 v. This is 2.1w. The larger garden lights typically have 2x 1.8Ahr batteries @2.4 v. Even if we assume the solar panel is large enough and they will be fully charged each day and 100% of the stored power can be used, the light has only 1/3 the available power.

Anchor lights low down are good. Dull anchor lights are bad.

LED lights that meet the minimum brightness level are not expensive. As well as meeting the legal requirement, which can be important, I think lights like this are vital from a practical safety point of view. If they are the only lights, they are better mounted low.

Having additional lights is great. Exceeding the minimum requirements in this area is a good idea, but some boats simply hang one or two garden lights with a few poor quality 5mm LEDs and feel this is adequate. It is not.

 

[jdc]

If you're a member of the CA then the December 2016 issue of 'Cruising' (still readable on-line) carried an article on this exact matter.

That said, the points made by several contributors above are pretty much in agreement with it. My summary:

1. The col regs also say words to the effect that nothing in these rules should absolve you of the need to observe the normal practice of seamen. This means you've got to use your loaf, not just say 'I comply with the rule'.
2. Thus worry about what might collide with you. As said above, if it's a mile away it hasn't hit you (yet). It's usually the last 100m which counts for most vessels likely to be passing through a yacht anchorage.
3. So what traffic is, and will be later, around where you are? This often means that you need low-down lights and / or floodlighting of the decks. What's best may even change through the night - fishermen returning home vs fishermen leaving before dawn?
4. Solar garden lights are by no means a bad thing to put in the cockpit as extras as the collision risk is usually a maximum in the early part of the night (people coming back from the pub, or arriving late). But you still need a proper riding light. Several lights are fine, and not all need be that bright.
5. Worry about the clutter from the shore: think yourself into the shoes, or rather the eyes, of a fisherman say coming towards you sometime after dark. What will he see? How will you make sure he recognises that your light is much closer than the probably more powerful lights from the shore? He may not be looking up / be able to look up from his wheel-house (or Bimini).
6. One of the best things to help with 5. above is relative angular motion: if your light is obviously moving relative to the shore lights, then you're closer. This is the really key reason to avoid flashing: it attracts attention sure, but it makes judging distance hard (for good physical psychology reasons, it's how your brain is wired) - think how hard it is with channel buoys to judge if one's 5, 50 or 500m away on a pitchy night.

 

[Ludd]

I am constantly amazed by the attitude of yachtsmen to colregs requirements. 2nm visibility silly? Ask your insurance ccompany after you've been hit!
Strobe lights? There is a place for them, but NOT on a boat.

 

[RupertW]

I am constantly amazed by the attitude of yachtsmen to colregs requirements. 2nm visibility silly? Ask your insurance ccompany after you've been hit!
Strobe lights? There is a place for them, but NOT on a boat.

We all sail for different reasons - one of mine is to get away from tech and from rules and if there is nobody to enforce them then you make your own choices. If I thought I'd get hit because my lights could only be seen half a mile away I'd do something about it, and if I was hit anyway I'd say I had my legal masthead anchor light on and also feel pretty sure they would be in the wrong insurance wise as they would be hitting a stationary clearly lit boat, colregs or no colregs.

 

[duncan99210]

We use one of these https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/201928041581 fitted with an LED bulb. Hung in the foretriangle below the anchor ball. It's visible miles away and not expensive. We've also got a solar powered light on the pushpit rail but that's nothing to do with avoiding being hit; it's to make the boat easier to spot in amongst the others in an anchorage.
Cheap garden lights are simply not visible from far enough away to be reasonable substitutes for an anchor light. It's interesting to approach an anchorage from a distance on a dark night against a dark background. From a mile or so away, most anchor lights can clearly be seen, whether they be low level or masthead lights. However, you can't see the smaller solar powered lights common on boats in Greece. The closer you get, the more lights appear until you get to the last hundred metres or so and can see all the lovely deck level lights, including the strings of fairy lights popular amongst some parts of the community. This sort of experience suggest to me that a decent all round white light is needed for marking the boat in an anchorage.
Having entered crowded anchorages at night I've been appalled at the number of boats either not lit at all or lit by a couple of Asda garden lights. Given the circumstances likely to lead to boats arriving at an anchorage in the dark (long passage, hurried departure due to dragging anchor etc) I think that the least folks can do to protect themselves and others is to mark their boats properly.

 

[richardh10]

We use one of these https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/201928041581 fitted with an LED bulb.

I had one of these and it soon filled up with water. If I’m paying 30odd quid, I’d at least expect it to be waterproof. Also, the cable is 4.6m. So, what are these for? A 5m boat? Unless of course you have a cigarette lighter socket at the mast!